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Lazy Sundays

It was only last year when Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy” was primed to be the summer’s anthem. Recently Iggy was forced to postpone her tour because she could not get an opening act. So what exactly happened in between? It was an image problem in a genre that values authenticity — a blonde from the other side of the world expanding popular assumptions of what rappers look and sound like. Her music was not really a collection of rap songs, but rather a cartoonish portrayal of race where her imitation of the black Southern voice lacked any personality. Her rise to stardom echoes the concerns of black erasure and adds another chapter to ongoing discussion of who does Hip Hop belong to. She is a chilling reminder that the music business is very good at using whiteness to sell blackness. People want her to disappear and they may get their wish, but history suggests she’ll make a comeback attempt— perhaps reinvention. (via The Washington Post)

Remember the internet during the mid 90s and early 2000s? The first iteration — Web 1.0 where MySpace was the biggest social network, AOL chatrooms (a/s/l?), and AIM with buddy profiles providing social statements. Also remember, Geocities webpages and having one was big deal? I could go on. Teen’s these days would most likely find web 1.0 to be a weird and foreign place — however to those who grew up with the internet at it’s birth, it fills us with deep nostalgia. (via PAPER)

We’re all looking for love. There’s a dedicated industry for helping us do so — online dating is a $2.4 billion business that has exploded the past few years thanks to the myriad of mobile apps. Having smartphones opens up many options in online dating: being able to be super specific in what you’re looking for in a potential partner — something that was almost impossible during our parent’s generation. Looking for someone single, a certain age and height, loves animals, and living in Brooklyn only 4 miles away from you is totally possible these days thanks to online dating. The technological advances have given this generation the most romantic options to date. Of course, like all things there are some downsides to it — research shows that women receive more attention than men. There’s also the amount of work one has to put into it: answering messages and filtering through profiles just to get to the first date. Does all this effort in sorting out profiles really help? Despite all the nuances people put up on their profiles, the main factor in selecting someone to go on a date with is… looks. This isn’t much different to what our parents and grandparents did, even with today’s technological advances. With all these options and possibilities, we usually limit it to people we find attractive. (via Time)